Author's Note: Now before all you flyboys and veterans get on my case about the technical errors, just remember, this is a work of fiction. I've never served in any American military unit and I've never flown an aircraft. The idea is to tell a story without letting the technical stuff get in the way of the plot. I hope that doesn't put you off too much.
This is the third and final episode of the 'Dear Mother' series. Thanks for sticking with it and I hope you enjoy it.
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Chapter 1:
I turned and looked back down the aisle at the beautiful woman walking slowly toward me, her father on her arm. She was radiant in her lovely white bridal gown, and her father was handsomely attired in his formal tuxedo. The organ music played the traditional theme in the background while everyone in the church watched in anticipation. I glanced quickly at Frank and Mom, sitting in the front row, smiling happily at me. Mom's cheeks were streaked with tears, but I knew they were the tears of her happiness.
Today, my dream would come true. I felt like I had been waiting for this moment since I was a kid when I first met my future bride. Penny Lane was only a few feet from me now, and in a very short time, we would be man and wife. I was rigid with both excitement and raw nerves. I had come through some harrowing scrapes in my flying career without feeling quite as uptight as I did at this moment. I knew my nervousness was a sign of just how important this moment was to me. I looked down to make sure my dress whites were perfect and that my fly wasn't open. I looked up and she was there, in front of me, smiling through her tears.
I was about to enter a whole new world. I reached out to hold her hands as the minister conducted the ceremony. I don't think my eyes left her for the entire time that he read the well-known script that would confirm our commitment to each other. When we had parroted the words, answered the questions, and said our "I Do's," I pulled her gently to me, wrapped my arms around her, and kissed her with all the passion I felt for her. A life-long desire had now come to pass, and I was the happiest man on earth. It hadn't come easily, however.
Chapter 2:
My third year at Oregon State University ended on a mixed note. First, I lost my girlfriend Liz when she went back to Canada to finish her schooling. She had qualified for her national swim team, and they wanted her closer to home. That hurt. We had just become lovers a few months earlier, and I was seriously considering asking Liz to marry me, but all that went out the window.
I would have been really down in the dumps if something amazing hadn't happened just after Liz left. I found my mother. She was in Bellingham, Washington, and she had remarried. What's more, she looked terrific and was genuinely happy with her new husband, Frank Trimble. He was a pilot and a really nice guy. I really felt much better about Mom when I saw how happy she was and that she wasn't upset with me after I had told my Dad about her affair. I promised myself that I would stay close to Mom, and try and make up for the heartache I had caused her. On the other hand, if Dad hadn't divorced her she would never have met Frank, so you never know how things are going to turn out.
Frank took me up in one his planes, and I was a thrilled to be sitting in the cockpit with him. He even let me fly it for a while. I was so excited that I knew right then and there that I wanted to learn to fly. I still had to serve my time with Uncle Sam after I graduated, so it was a matter of choosing which service would give me the best chance to become a pilot. Frank had been in the Air Force, and naturally, he thought that would be the best choice.
When I got back to Corvallis to start my summer job, I got another big surprise. Penny had tried to call me when I was up north. She had left a number, but it was for a motor inn in Eugene and she had checked out a couple of days before I got back. That really got me thinking. With Liz gone, I really didn't have anyone that I could look forward to being with besides Mom and Frank. Penny and I had been really close and even though we were really young, we had been thinking about marriage too. It was crazy, since we were only eighteen then, but we were in love. We had known each other since grade school.
When I moved to Oregon, we wrote to each other for a while, but soon I could tell it was impossible to keep things going with our being so far apart. I told her to look for someone else because I wasn't going to be back for a long time. She knew I wasn't going to see my dad after what he did to Mom. Anyway, she wrote me a letter and told me that she had found a new guy, and that he was a nice guy, and they had a lot in common. I think I might have hurt her feelings with my letter. I had mixed emotions about her seeing another guy too. At the time, I thought I was in love with Liz, but it felt funny when Penny said she was with someone else. I didn't realize until I got that phone message that I still had a strong feelings for her.
We were both twenty-one now, starting our last year of college, and needed to plan our futures. The more I thought about mine, the more two things kept coming back; Penny and flying. At least now I had something to look forward to and someone I wanted to talk to and hoped to be with. I decided to make a long distance call to Penny's home and see just what was happening in her life. I needed someplace private to do that, so the first person I thought of was Aunt Hilda. I called her from the dorm and told her what I wanted to do. Naturally, she was all for it. I promised I would pay her for the call.
Aunt Hilda reminded me that we were two hours behind Aberdeen, so the best time to call might be after my work during the week. After six o'clock the rates were cheaper and it would still only be just after eight in Aberdeen. That sounded like the perfect time, and on top of that Aunt Hilda invited me to have supper with her. I would never turn down one of her home cooked meals. Since she wanted to hear all about Mom and her new husband, it was the perfect opportunity.
My new summer job was in Salem, so I had a bit of planning to do to make sure I could get there and back without too much trouble. The alumni had arranged a better job since I was now a co-captain. I was grateful that I would have a lot more money to work with by September. What I didn't realize was that there was an additional benefit.
When I showed up at Capitol Motors on Monday morning, I checked into the office and learned that the boss wasn't in yet and wouldn't be for another hour. I wandered through the empty showroom, looking at the new Fords and Mercurys, wishing I could afford one. After a while, I went outside and walked over to the used car lot and looked over the inventory. It was pretty clear that there were two classes of car on the "Used" lot; shiny late-model cars on the front row, and older more experienced units in the back row. When I bought my first car, I was determined that it was going to be off the front row and not the back row.
Mr. Randolph, the owner and an OSU alumnus, showed up just after nine. I waited until he went to his office before I walked toward it and knocked lightly on the door frame. He looked up with a questioning face.
"Yah ... what can I do for you?" he said in a rough voice.
"I'm Ron Francis from OSU. I was told to report to you for a summer job."
